Mahela Jayawardene, the coach of the Mumbai Indians, has allayed worries over burnout among his important Indian players, such as Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. Instead of attributing the team’s poor performance to T20 World Cup tiredness, Jayawardene has assured that the team is focused on restoring rhythm and confidence.
The Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai on Thursday by 103 runs, their largest run deficit this IPL season, marking their fifth loss in seven games.
Suryakumar has scored 156 runs in seven games, MI captain Pandya has only claimed three wickets while scoring 97 runs in six games. Even Tilak Varma (181 runs) and Jasprit Bumrah (2 wickets) have failed to leave a lasting impression.
“(In) modern day (cricket), everyone is a professional. A lot of the guys who played World Cup have come back after a break to play the IPL,” PTI quoted Jayawardene telling reporters after MI’s heavy loss to CSK.
“I don’t think even the players would put to that (fatigue), it’s about us getting the rhythm, getting that consistency… overall consistency is something we are lacking. Yes, (in) bowling, we need to improve but at the same time batting hasn’t been consistent as well.”
“We just need to find that space where we can compete. If we play our best cricket, we have a great chance, but the confidence, the focus, the discipline has to be there for the next seven games,” he added.
One of the reasons for MI’s lackluster start to the season has been their weak powerplays. After taking a lot of wickets in the first three overs, MI was only able to crawl to 29/3 on Thursday, while CSK shot to 73/2 batting first.
“Once you lose a match like that, it’s difficult to even analyse it. But probably we lost both the powerplays with the ball and with the bat, we just couldn’t get into the game,” the former Sri Lanka skipper said.
“We have got a little break now, it gives us some time to really sit down and think what we need to do the next seven matches, and we know exactly what we need to do and we’ll plan and put our best foot out,” Jayawardene said.
Jayawardene also backed Pandya, arguing that no single player’s performance can be blamed for MI’s dismal run.
“(In) the first few games with the ball, he bowled really well. That’s what I’m saying, overall, as a unit, we have had this. It’s not just individuals. I don’t want to name individuals. As a team, we haven’t been consistent,” Jayawardene said.
According to Jayawardene, MI wanted more control up front, therefore Bumrah bowled the first over in the previous two games.
“We needed some experience upfront to take the new ball because we were not setting a tone with the first over itself. We were going for 10, 12, 13 runs; ‘let’s grab that back’. Like I said, we’ll sit down, we’ll reflect and come back strong,” he said.
According to Jayawardene, Mitchell Santner, the captain of the New Zealand T20I team, was taken for scans after being replaced by Shardul Thakur as a concussion substitute following a diving catch.
“He hit his head first, neck, obviously the shoulder as well. He went for a scan because once he got back, he felt dizziness. The ice (pack in the dugout) was there for the shoulder. But he felt that he wasn’t stable so we took him for a scan,” Jayawardene said.
